Peter F. Hamilton
Peter F. Hamilton was born in Rutland, UK in 1960. In addition to the three Greg Mandel novels,
Mindstar Rising, A Quantum Murder and The Nano Flower (all from Tor),
he is the author of the UK bestseller, The Reality Dysfunction,
which, along with The Neutronium Alchemist, form volumes 1 and 2
of Night's Dawn trilogy.

Great Road North is a meticulously crafted novel that blends murder mystery, horror story and thriller into one very
compelling and entertaining science fiction novel. This should come as no surprise to fans of Peter Hamilton. He has consistently
proven himself to be one of the most creative and imaginative writers in science fiction. There aren't very many authors
out there who can juggle three genres, a couple dozen characters and a multitude of plot threads with this much detail and
pull it all together into one seamless novel, but Hamilton does just that in Great North Road.

In 2143 a member of the world's most powerful family, the Norths, shows up murdered. He is found with his chest punctured
five times in a circular pattern and his heart shredded from the inside. This unusual method of death has only been seen once
before, twenty years earlier, when the mysterious Angela Tramelo was accused and convicted of slaughtering another important
member of the North family along with 15 other people at his private mansion. Angela had always claimed it was a monster,
now it seems she may have been correct, as the latest North murder took place while she was incarcerated. Since Angela is
the only person to have ever seen the monster and survive, she is released into custody to be a part of the search to find
the alien and she may yet hold the key to unraveling the mystery of the North murders. A full-scale scientific expedition
to the alien's home world of St. Libra is launched with Angela as one of their members, but the ill-fated expedition runs
into more than its fair share of trouble as, one by one, the members start showing up dead.

There is a lot going on in Great North Road. The plot may seem like a routine action thriller but when you put it into a
highly developed science fiction context it turns into something extraordinary. The science expedition on St. Libra plays
out a little bit like the films The Thing or Predator. While the murder investigation portion of the book plays out like
a futuristic detective thriller. It's great fun and doesn't sacrifice anything to attain the depth we have all come to
know and expect from Peter F. Hamilton. The length of the book alone should tell you that. It is all space well used. If
Hamilton isn't furthering the storyline, he's adding layers into his world or developing his vast array of characters. All
of the main people receive the rich treatment they deserve and no detail is too small. Hamilton gives us multiple
protagonists and a host of plot threads and perspectives to crunch on while sharing his fantastic vision of the future
with us. Great North Road is a long journey, but it does pay off for readers in the end.

With Great North Road, you can go ahead and mark down another win for Peter F. Hamilton and, by proxy,
fans of space opera. It is work like this that makes Peter Hamilton a pillar among writers and a giant in the
world of science fiction.

When asked to write a third-person tag line for his reviews, Dominic Cilli farmed the work out
to an actual 3rd person, his friend Neal, who in turn turned it over to a second person who then
asked his third cousin to help out and this person whom Dom doesn't even know then wrote in 8th
person Omniscient mode "Dom's breadth of knowledge in literature runs the gamut and is certainly
not bounded by the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre. One thing I can say with certainty is that of all
the people I don't know who've ever recommended books to read, Dom's recommendations are the best."